


Thunder, Perfect Mind

by zovinar



Category: Code Geass
Genre: Alexandrite Propaganda Machine, Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Body Horror, Demon Summoning, Ensemble Cast, Gen, M/M, POV Alternating, Psychological Trauma, julius kingley energy, rated M for metaphysically horny
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:34:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26418034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zovinar/pseuds/zovinar
Summary: A Knight's contract, the binding of one's soul with a demon's for the sake of personal power. For Suzaku, who grew up in a shrine, it’s about the closest thing to sacrilege he can imagine.The demon/contractor au that no one asked for but this fandom really needs. Things that are slated to happen: Lelouch tongues a corpse, Suzaku eats a rock, Kallen sets them both on fire, Gino worries himself sick, V.V. chains up a small child in the basement, and Lelouch can't keep his hands out of Suzaku's insides.None of these things happen the way you're probably expecting them to.
Relationships: Kouzuki Kallen & Gino Weinberg, Kururugi Suzaku/Lelouch Lamperouge | Lelouch vi Britannia
Comments: 45
Kudos: 119





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to my demonknight au! pls attend to the tags, "metaphysically horny" is important bc shit gets weird and I cannot justify or explain it.
> 
> ~~I did wanna let you guys know that while this is functionally a oneshot atm, it's part of a greater story I'm working on and _will_ be continued, but it's waiting for the plot to actually fully come together (and I'm busy with [tiger prince au](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24414838) haha) but there is a loooot more in the works, more action, more drama! more horny!! in the meantime feel free to ask away abt anything, that's always a good time.~~
> 
> we're up an active but still feel free to ask me anything! anyway have fun :3c

In Japan, there are kami. For as long as the land has lived, they have inhabited the forests and rivers, the wind and grass, fire and light, life and death.

Shrines are conduits, long-standing temples to oaths made and boons granted. Honoring benefactors and appeasing the more dangerous. Some are tricky, some benevolent, some malicious, but all draw power from the earth, the land, the providence of Japan. 

So of course in Britannia they summon demons instead.

For Suzaku, who grew up in a shrine, it’s about the closest thing to sacrilege he can imagine.

It does make sense though, that the kami are the single thread holding his homeland afloat even as Britannia forever tightens the noose. Japan is still an Area in all but name, but the Britannians remain leery of the kami. It unnerves them, that there are beings abound that can have the power of a loosed demon and none of the binding.

Suzaku has done well for himself in Britannia, as conflicted as he is on the matter, but it’s finally reached the tipping point. So far he’s served admirably as the Knight of Seven from raw skill alone, but now…

But now Suzaku is to conduct a summoning—for a knight’s contract, even; binding a demon’s power to strengthen his own rather than simply calling upon them for aid.

(He wonders, will his family blessing hold? Will the blood of the Vermillion Bird, Guardian of the South, still run through his veins? The power that leaves him stronger, faster, heartier than everyone else, that let him hold his own on the Rounds until now? Or will Britannia and his personal penance taint even the gift of his lineage?)

But the emperor has spoken. Suzaku Kururugi, by order of Charles zi Britannia, will henceforth take upon himself a contract with a demonic being.

So here he is, three protective circles in while he finalizes the summoning circle—and who’s to know at that point really if he uses the Sumeragi’s star as the base for his gate instead of any Britannian sigil as he traces the lines here for the knight’s contract as is expected of the Rounds; the call for personal power in exchange for a price and the possibility of attaining _Geass_ for any demon that grants him such. 

And oh, do they call when he ignites the gate, opening a raw wound in reality for him to search and them to peer back though, hissing at the back of his mind but held back by his wards.

_I’ll grant your every wish_

_Little knight, let me strengthen you_

_With me you’ll be invincible!_

_Come, let me give you power_

_You are strong, I will make you stronger—the strongest of them all!_

“My,” a voice cuts through the noise, amused and uncaring. “Well you’re certainly _damaged_.”

Suzaku’s flicker of attention snaps the hazy gate into place, the shard of reality where the demon resides brought to the forefront as the image shifts into clarity.

His first thought is that he’s…beautiful, this demon, with elegant, disaffected lines to his sprawl and haughty air about him. Of course, it doesn’t matter in the end, Suzaku will cut him down without pause if need be, but he can still take a moment to appreciate it.

Something sparks in the demon’s eyes, knife sharp and hungry. “That’s the nicest thing someone’s thought about me in a while.”

Suzaku frowns in mild confusion. “That you’re beautiful?” He doubts it. “That I don’t care?”

Then he starts, hand going to his sword at his hip that—damn, is instead at the center of the circle as the anchor point for the gate. But still, the blessing from Suzaku’s oath of loyalty as a Knight of the Rounds should ward his mind. 

“Yes but you see,” the demon drawls, all lazy indifference over deadly intent, “that is the gift of my lineage.”

“Invasive telepathy?”

The smile instantly goes hard and nasty. “Rule breaking.”

He can’t help the quirk of amusement that tugs at his mouth and the demon’s own turns to pleased instead. 

“Well then go on then,” chides the demon, “don’t just stand there. You’re looking for something after all, aren’t you?”

But Suzaku…doesn’t.

He can’t.

Something about the demon is…electric. His aura is full of drama and flair, a lightning rod of energy and vicious sparks that singe. 

It’s enchanting, enthralling, _intoxicating_ , and for a moment all Suzaku wants is to feel that fire; perhaps not from within but for even a breath to simply to bask in its presence.

But even more than that…

(‘Damaged,’ he had said. _‘Damaged,’_ because he could tell. Damaged. Like he didn’t care. Like he simply accepted it and moved on and—)

( _“‘That’s the nicest thing someone’s thought about me in a while.’”_ )

For the first step, Suzaku feels like a puppet on strings, tugged along and agency be damned, but each after that has more and more purpose behind it. A flicker of surprise enters the demon’s stance as he steps to the center of the gate, the tear that connects their two points of reality, standing on his side, the other side—both, when here at this nexus, the center of the Sumeragi’s star. He steps into the space of convergence and the world simply…shatters, cracks, breaks apart and unfolds around Suzaku as the demon’s image fractures into shards of light, a stained-glass triptych his mind is forced to assemble into a single image. A mosaic of self, each panel different yet each the same and all watching Suzaku with those hungry, glimmering eyes—eyes that dance like the priceless shard of alexandrite in the necklace Princess Euphemia had shown Suzaku with a giggle when he’d jokingly asked about her least favorite piece of jewelry: clear violet with murky darkness nestled in bottomless facets and an acid green undertone when the light strikes it just so.

The demon leans back on his throne-like chair, one leg crossing over the other in a dizzying, wave-like, churning kaleidoscope and Suzaku squints against the metaphysical form of the demon, mind-bending to experience yet still relatively digestible for a true form…and more human too, unexpectedly.

All the images laugh, some softly, some sly, some into the back of his hand, but then the visage shifts like a prism working in reverse and the images all converge until he is simply three shafts of light. “Any better?” the demon half teases with a lilt to his voice

Like he can’t tell.

“It’s more of an impression of your thoughts than anything else,” says the demon with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Your blessing does grant you certain protections after all and as I said, that is not my area of expertise. I am simply very, very smart”

And very, very beautiful; ebony haired and pale skinned and with those hypnotic, alexandrite eyes. Dressed in a dark, high collared surcoat held together with glimmering gold chains over his long, sleeveless tunic. Slim black gloves reach just shy of his shoulders and the front of the violet tunic is trimmed with gold, cut from the waist down to reveal black heeled boots that flash gold under soles as the demon recrosses his legs…

Preening, it feels like.

The demon gives him a sly smile and his own once over, eyes dragging up Suzaku’s body. “Well then, what on earth could you want from me? Other than the view.”

Suzaku’s jaw works for a moment before he finds his words. “…What is your price?”

There is a sort of empty pause, then the demon laughs; laughs loud and long and entirely at Suzaku’s expense. “My god, are you serious? Hah! I feel as if we must both now agree that I am very, very smart and you are very, very _dumb_. You’re doing this backwards, you fool. My _price?_ That’s last! I’m supposed to proposition you _first_ , then you’re supposed to ask me what of my power I can offer to you.”

“I don’t need power, I need…”

“…Yes?” says the demon in a mockingly patient voice, resting his chin on laced fingers.

“…Balance,” whispers Suzaku, mind cast to the past and his mother’s words, his lessons with Kaguya, Tohdoh’s constant reminders to rein in his strength.

Suzaku can almost feel the demon’s thoughts screech to a halt. The humor is gone from his face as he straightens, an intent look fixed on Suzaku. “You certainly are an odd one, and an idiot no less. I suppose…” He gives a considering hum. “My price, hm? Perhaps we could have a simple trade then, my help for yours?”

Help. Suzaku had “helped” Japan had he not? And it says nothing of what _kind_ of help the demon would offer him. “What you want can’t be that simple. Help? I’m not that much a fool.”

Something almost pleased flashes across the demon’s face, before his eyes sharpen into icy slits. “Never betray me, and my aid will always be at your disposal.”

“I…that’s it?” That can’t be it.

“Ah, but it seems fair enough: I would never be able to act through you out of your allowances, would I not? That is how these things work after all. Imagine, all of my power yours to command for the simple price of _not_ doing something. A certain type of loyalty sure, but no less than what is expected in any usual partnership.”

“No,” Suzaku says slowly, brow furrowed because… “No, I want something from you too.” Something doesn’t feel right. The balance is skewed—and not in Suzaku’s favor.

A delicate brow is raised. “Power?”

“A promise.” Suzaku is not a fool, he knows a silver tongue when he hears it. “Can loyalty truly be called such if it could be based upon lies?” he asks and the demon’s eyes go wide, shock giving his face an innocence that makes him look young. “If I know the truth then I can abide by your cause. But,” his hand rests on the pommel of his sword, thrust in the ground at the center of the gate he stands before, “only if it does not invalidate my own.”

“You _would_ betray me then if you deemed it so?” The demon almost laughs the words out, incredulous. “You do know what that would mean if you were to break our contract, yes? Your blood boiling away in your veins and your soul forfeit for my pleasure.”

Suzaku just watches him, steadfast. “Give me your word, and I will give you my life.”

The demon stares at him before haunting delight crawls across his face. “You,” he says with breathless rapture, “are truly the most disastrously fractured human I have yet had the misfortune to meet.” 

And then suddenly the demon is before him in a flash of light, a skew of a prism casting him close, the cut in his overlong tunic falling around his legs like a split skirt as he stands before Suzaku, eyes glimmering. Dangerous and radiating restrained power.

“My aid for your allegiance and my word for your life. Very well, by my name as Zero, this pact I shall offer to thee,” he declares with savage glee. 

Suzaku has barely accepted the oath before the demon—Zero is upon him, five buzzing brands of energy gripping his jaw and forcing Suzaku’s mouth open. A tongue of flame caresses against his own, licking in and up, sliding against Suzaku’s upper palate as the roof of his mouth, sparks, starts to bubble, _melt_ , lines carving away flesh as they engrave themselves in a jagged, dizzying pattern that he already knows soul deep. For a moment, feathers of fire build up in his throat but Suzaku breathes through them as he always does, accepting the electrifying, potential energy of Zero’s power to slide flush within him.

Then Zero bites his tongue, teeth slicing through in an impossible shape. Power lights up his senses but this feels more familiar, like a boon offered from a kami: Zero’s promise.

Suzaku is gasping as he leans away, blood and saliva running down his chin as Zero licks a smear of red (blood, _Suzaku’s_ blood) from his upper lip, watching Suzaku with a predators’ expectant gaze, but this part he remembers.

“This one, as Kururugi Suzaku, does so swear to uphold this contract,” he forces out, hyper-aware of the mark Zero left as his bleeding tongue rasps against it—and crap, he mangled his phrasing, but it doesn’t seem to matter, Zero’s lip curling in satisfaction as he loosely wraps his arms around Suzaku’s neck.

“Oh my, surname as well?” Zero croons, tone smug to the point of concern. “Well then _Suzaku Kururugi_ , you may call me Lelouch vi Britannia.”

And the shock of already being granted Zero’s personal name almost pushes it from his mind but, “Wait, vi _Britannia?_ What—!?”

The laugh he gets as a response is high and manic, rich and loud and dripping mirth and oh, Suzaku is in so much trouble. “Oh wouldn’t you like to know!” The demon leans in ever closer as the contract sears their souls together. “Earn it,” Lelouch breathes in his ear, voice a hot snake sliding into Suzaku’s brain.

“Yes, my lord,” drops from his mouth, unheeded by his mind.

* * *

Suzaku’s first step out of the gate is an epiphany, the next an illumination, the one that finally clears the summoning circle a revelation.

Lelouch, Suzaku realizes as heady power rocks through him, bringing him to his knees, is not like the others.

Immensity crashes down around him as he fully anchors the demon’s presence to the material plane because Zero is not like the demons that grant Anya her lightning-swift speed, Gino his knack for explosions, Bismarck his split-second foresight.

Lelouch is the entropy of the void. Rule breaking, he’d said but this isn’t just that, this is the stars coming into alignment and miracles falling into your lap but by the grace of Zero himself, a finger on the scale to tip fate in his favor, the impossible brought to bear, the unthinkable made real by the beat of butterfly wings.

Infinite potential compacted into the shell of Suzaku’s skull.

“I am going to vomit.”

“Hey! Woah dude, Suzaku are you okay?”

 _“You’re not going to throw up, calm down.”_ And he doesn’t know whether to sigh or sob when Lelouch reels himself in and Suzaku stops feeling as if he’ll split at the seams. _“It’s been a while since I had to fit myself in a space that wasn’t solely metaphoric.”_

“—zaku, Suzaku! Hey man, c’mon.” Hands support his shoulders as the dry heaves settle, the other Rounds who had come in a show of support finally able to see him again after he left the now inert circle.

“I’m fine. I’m fine, Gino,” Suzaku stutters, mouth dry as he waves the Knight of Three off. “He just didn’t…fit.”

The toothy grin Gino gets at that almost makes his headache come back. “Too big huh? Yeah they can get overwhelming like that.”

“Not big, it’s just—” The largest bonfire on Earth could never compare to a nuclear reactor held in the palm of your hand, the scale is too immense.

Lelouch will not grant him power, he does not have power to grant.

Lelouch _is_ power.

 _“Flatterer,”_ Lelouch murmurs, voice a sensation that drags fingers down his throat from the inside.

Suzaku’s breath stutters as he tries to hold in a shiver but that just seems to encourage Lelouch to run a touch of power through their contract and…ah.

There is absolutely no way he isn’t in over his head on this in every conceivable way, Suzaku can’t help but think as he lists to the side, stumbling into hands that are warm with Guren’s power as Gino scrambles to catch the dead weight of him as he falls.

With a twist to his heart, Suzaku feels the echo of a sly smile trapped under his skin.

Ohh, Suzaku is in _so much_ trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (comment to feed the machine or [visit me on twitt](https://twitter.com/stovinar/status/1304869682470682624?s=19) to see a sketch of demon!lelouch)
> 
> ([here's another sketch](https://twitter.com/stovinar/status/1319762634401525761?s=19))
> 
> …and [another](https://twitter.com/stovinar/status/1327801021167448064?s=19)! this one's full body so it really shows off his design


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw for lots of lore told by a manipulative person to a dumbass. also for suzaku and lelouch in general.

Suzaku does throw up, sort of anyway, but not until after he’d slept away three of his seven days of leave. It’s still Lelouch’s fault though. 

Suzaku would like to say he made it back to his quarters himself, but Gino had to carry him back at which point he’d promptly passed out. For three days.

 _“Oh stop complaining, that span of convalescence is a pittance compared to what most people go through after a Knight’s Contract.”_ Zero huffs from the back of his skull. _“Besides, you have your last four days off for us to get to know each other proper.”_

He’s not wrong, it certainly doesn’t feel like enough. Suzaku’s body is more or less fine, aside from how raw his mouth still feels, but the chains of spirit that weave him to Zero are still not entirely settled.

_“Also, I’ve been bored.”_

“What does that have to do with anything?”

A sigh from within raises goosebumps along his arms. _“Do you know what sleep paralysis is? I certainly know how it feels now. Trapped within your poor, helpless skull for days, how do you think I feel?”_

“…Bad, I suppose.”

_“Exactly. Now get out of your damn bed, Suzaku Kururugi.”_

Even without the tugging at his bones from the order Suzaku obeys with a sigh, restless and hungry already himself.

 _“Thank the gods,”_ grumbles his demon.

“Why didn’t you just turn your focus elsewhere? It’s not like you’re trapped within me anywhere other than on this plane of existence.”

_“Your life is mine, is it not? Who are you to say I cannot relish it, dull as it may be at the moment.”_

_LIE._ Suzaku jerks, getting half caught in his sheets as something sparks along his tongue. That…that was a lie.

Zero chuckles. _“Yes it was. Truthfully, I would have been equally bored at home, while remaining hastened your recovery.”_

“You said…” Suzaku stammers, “You gave your _word_ —”

Amusement curdles in his stomach. _“There will be no lies between us, Suzaku Kururugi. That was the truth.”_ Which reads true. _“But I simply enjoy lying too much; a bit of a vice, I suppose. You’ll simply have to deal with it.”_

Suzaku shucks his sweat soaked shirt as he wanders over to his mirror, curious. His contract with Zero is part of his soul now and he knows it as well as he knows himself, understands it on a primal level, but the demon’s promise to him is a separate matter. “How can lying be considered a vice?” he asks before opening his mouth wide to peer at the dark mark inked onto his tongue. The shape is of a vertical eye with three teardrop shaped rays of light emanating from the center on each side—insight and knowledge from the third-eye, illumination from the sun, if Suzaku remembers correctly.

A skew of light and then Lelouch is there instead of his reflection, hands splayed lazily against glass as he presses up against the mirror from the inside. “Do you like it? A variant of my own sigil, personally tailored for a very personal promise as a present for my new…accomplice,” he coos, then licks a long stripe up the other side of the glass, showing off the matching mark on his own tongue.

Suzaku jerks back at the sight. “How did you…?” he mutters, brow furrowing as a hand comes up to cover one of the demon’s.

 _“Silly fool,”_ whispers Lelouch from distinctly within his head as the reflection smiles slightly and says nothing. _“A small bend of light for your perception is nothing compared to the power over yourself that you’ve given to me already. But don’t you fret, my influence is still trapped within your bloodline alone.”_

Suzaku frowns sightly at that. “My bloodline—my family’s name? Is that what earned me your true name?” 

“Well,” drawls the boy in his mirror, “you _did_ offer your surname in priority for our contract. To an extent, you gave me your entire lineage.”

“Oh,” Suzaku says and that would be far more terrifying in implication if it wasn’t that— “But my father is dead, mother as well from long ago, and I can’t see myself continuing the line. The Kururugis have always been a single branch so there’s not much to give.”

The reflection just smiles coyly. “Ah, but that’s not what matters, it’s the _gesture._ As for my name, consider it an…offering in good faith.” Zero chuckles richly, “it’s not like you can use it against me knowingly.” 

An offering in good faith. The words spark something in his memory. “Right, hold on,” he says, turning to shuffle through his desk drawers. “I have something for you.” 

Suzaku catches the flicker of a frown and the image winks out, showing only himself once more as his fingers close around a small box tucked away in the far back. 

“Here.” Suzaku opens the little box pulling out Euphemia’s least favorite necklace. For a prized heirloom it really is ugly, yet alluring all the same; made of heavy gold, cold and beautiful in the way of ancient things. The rectangular cut alexandrite pendant is partially swallowed by the metal it sits in, nearly an inch long and as dark and deep as the sky on a moonless night. “I got you a present.”

 _“You what,”_ says Lelouch blankly in what Suzaku is starting to suspect is his default tone for confusion.

“It’s a present? A gift for you.”

 _“What? Why on earth would you give me something like that?”_ Lelouch snaps. _“It’s not part of your price.”_

“So? Demons like crystals, right? I thought…” Suzaku trails off. He hopes he was right, that he didn’t offend Lelouch somehow.

 _“Ridiculous. How— But I suppose…”_ Suzaku gets the impression of a tangle of emotion from the demon as he muses to himself. _“Eat it,”_ says Lelouch after a pause.

Suzaku feels his nose wrinkle. “What?”

 _“Eat it,”_ says Lelouch again, the impression of fingers skimming along his tongue. _“Consume it so as to make it part of yourself and I shall have dominion over it as well. ‘Demons like crystals,’ he says, moron. We use them as anchors, you fool. Although the power we can bring to the plane is limited to the amount that the crystal channel.”_

Insult aside that seems…reasonable enough, he’s been asked by kami to do far stranger things before. But… Suzaku eyes the pendant with trepidation as he tugs it from its chain. It’s really big is the only thing, but he tentatively puts the gemstone pendant in his mouth, tasting metal as he swallows—and he shudders as it scrapes along the promise etched into his tongue and grazes the contract on the roof of his mouth, both still hypersensitive.

It starts with the sensation of something touching his belly, fingers brushing against it lightly, before a darkness seems to crawl away and then with a last refraction of light, Zero is there in front of him, standing in Suzaku’s room on the physical plane.

Suzaku’s hand goes to the knife on his desk, heart pounding. A loosed demon is not like a loosed kami, Zero should _not_ be able to act independent from him in any way. Suzaku may have given the demon free rein over his own form but denial will always be an option he won’t be afraid to exercise, even if he shudders to think what would happen if he broke his oath with Zero. 

But the demon just smiles coyly. “Calm yourself, Suzaku Kururugi. Crystals allow for us to cast a projection onto the material plane, to interact more directly, my dear idiot. Demons can fold quite a lot of power within them depending on the cut and strength, but even that’s more a cast shadow of our presence, nothing close to a true manifestation or even the power brought forth with a contract.”

“What? No, you should only have contact through this plane through me.”

“You are so adorably clueless,” Lelouch huffs, patting Suzaku’s stomach and feeling very much so like a physical being. “Consider the crystal as a prism and this simply a refraction of my true power through it, the faintest shade of an imprint.” 

“But you’re here,” Suzaku says, lost.

Lelouch just smiles smugly. “An illusion, so to speak.”

“And before, with the mirror?”

 _“A simple twisting of your senses, dimwit. I am still housed solely within your soul,”_ hums the demon from inside his skull while his image smirks and brushes hair from his eyes. “This however,” says the illusion standing in his room with a haughty gesture to his own form, “is a projection of my form channeled through the crystal, over which we both now have claimed dominion. Through you, a spark of my power is now bound to it, allowing for a different path for me to imprint upon this plane or a place to withdraw from you while still remaining present. Although I think that should be enough,” muses Lelouch.

Suzaku frowns. “What do y—?”

Then Lelouch plunges his hand through Suzaku and into his gut. 

It feels like lightning, like thunder in his veins, like shards of glassy light sinking under his skin, inching through his organs and then finally fisting around something and starting to pull back. 

It hurts. It hurts, hurts like a sword being drawn out after he’s gotten stabbed, like the rest of his intestines want to clutch and follow the vacuum left behind by Zero’s hand, follow it and the white hot point of fire being pulled from his belly. The thing seems to almost vibrate inside him, a concentrated nexus of potential energy eating it’s way out of his flesh until finally, _finally,_ breaching skin, leaving his insides raw and used.

Zero’s smile is unworldly and pleased as he holds the alexandrite pendant delicately between slim, gloved fingers.

Suzaku can’t help but stare…until something in his stomach churns and he coughs, gags, hunches over to spit out—spit out a hunk of molten gold. It…he chances a glance at the pendant and how it sits in Lelouch’s hand, perfectly cut yet raw looking as it sits free of it’s mooring, gold bezel scoured from its shape and now sitting on the floor in a small puddle.

Zero catches his eye and something wicked passes over his face for just a moment before he holds the crystal in front of his mouth, shark like smile parting for him to press the stone back against his tongue, against the mark of his promise in a lascivious parody of what he’d had Suzaku do and licks before he holds it instead against his lower lip with a small chuckle.

“A fine gift, I must say. A home away from home, just for me and in such a strong crystal as well.” He drags it down, pressing the gemstone against his throat and sliding the stone down his chest, clothes furling away to display its passage until it sits over his heart, the winking slivers of Lelouch’s tunic parted out to show just a hint of moonbeam pale skin around the dark, dark, bottomless cut of the alexandrite, held against the center of what must be their shared contract. 

Lelouch gives Suzaku a soft pleased smile and pushes the stone in, enfolding it with his own light and oh, oh he can feel it through his contract mark as well, the press of the cut facets growing deeper—

Suzaku chokes again…and spits out a rock, barely catching it before it can hit the floor. As it tumbles, something winks at him from its core, a shadow upon its brilliance. Suzaku frowns as he pulls it close, turning the stone side to side to see it proper and…there. Nestled in the crystal’s center at just the point where violet shifts to poison green is the glimmering imprint of symbol-like wide swept wings topping a vertical eye, like a trick of the light. The mark has the same sunbursts along the sides that Zero’s promise bears and a spike drips from the bottom corner of the eye like an icy tear.

“Your crest?” Suzaku asks, studying the design.

“Hmm,” muses Lelouch and Suzaku feels the crystal hum as well, feels the echo of Zero’s power from within. Two hands come to cup his cheeks, pulling his chin up for Lelouch to meet his gaze. In his heels and up close the demon stands a few inches taller than him as his eyes peer into Suzaku’s soul. “Yes, the crest is mine, my imprint and claim upon the crystal so it may not be used without or against me. This though here,” he says, shifting to press gloved fingertips to Suzaku’s lips, sliding past as Suzaku’s jaw slackens in surprise to press against the mark on his tongue that matches Zero’s. “This here is a greater claim of sorts. You gave yourself to me, after all. My domain is in your blood and bone as long as my tongue remains obedient to truths.” Then Lelouch’s eyes narrow, hands retreating as he crosses his arms with thoughtful grace and a scholar’s look of consideration. “Speaking of blood, I must ask. When are we discussing…that.”

“What—oh,” says Suzaku as his exhale births a flicker of flame. “That.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay I know the lore stuff is complex but basically without the crystal Lelouch can twist Suzaku's senses to make him perceive Lelouch as physically present on the material plane, with the crystal he can project an illusion that makes everyone think he's physically present…kinda. regardless, he's not supposed to be able to do either under normal circumstances bc of his contract. there's more going on but I'll get into it later.
> 
> oh also here's a [colored version of lelouch](https://twitter.com/stovinar/status/1328198449351815174)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more lore but I think this one's deffo worth it :))

From birth, Suzaku’s life has been entangled with the guidance of the Southern Phoenix of Japan. The blessings reach back to long ago, each Divine Beast offering their patronage to what eventually became the four noble houses of Kyoto.

Genbu had never been much involved but Mother had always encouraged him to know his self and body well, to be open to the power granted to him by his blood. She and Tohdoh had always pushed him to truly explore his limits, to understand his boon of strength—the complete and exacting control he had over his body since early childhood.

 _“The Kururugi guardian has granted you harmony of the body and soul,”_ his mother had always told him. _“Now you must seek harmony of the mind,”_ she’d say before pinching his cheeks and sending him off to his usually disastrous meditation sessions.

And yet, Suzaku had somehow achieved a harmony of sorts with his guardian. But to this day, the Vermilion Bird has never truly spoken to him. At one point when he was young, long before Britannia had come to Japan and his father to him with an impossible demand, Suzaku had heard that the Dragon of the East actually _talked_ to Kaguya even though, as one of the dormant guardians as opposed to Suzaku’s active one, he could not lend her his power. Suzaku had been so jealous he’d spilled ink all over her favorite robes during their next calligraphy lesson together. It had been one of the many childish fights between the two of them, but he had simply wished to speak to his family’s patron for once, to thank in words the feathers that would ghost under his skin. 

But then the kidnappers had come.

Suzaku had been tied up in a warehouse after he’d been taken from the outskirts of the Kururugi Shrine grounds, crying like he knew his father had always said not to because he had been alone and afraid and _seven_ and he had cried and cried until on the end of one sob he had hiccuped out sparks. Then a flicker of fire. Then a steady flame that caught and burned the ropes and room and finally the entire warehouse stood ablaze.

When they had finally found him, Suzaku had been in the center of a field of ash untouched, not a single hair singed, playing with the last embers of the inferno his guardian had bestowed upon him.

He had known after that the feel of Vermilion Bird’s gaze, learned the meaning behind the restless feeling of feathers rustling under his skin. His patron did not speak in word but in deed, guiding Suzaku’s sword even now as he fights instead for Britannia.

(Suzaku will never forget the small spark of fear he had felt at the perspective loss of his staunchest ally even as he had slid his tanto deeper into his father’s belly, the hot gush of lifeblood that had painted his front icy compared to the rage he had still felt in his bones at the mere thought of harnessing the power of the kami for a preemptive strike against Britannia, fury at the order to leash the Guardian of the South as a tool for war pounding at his temples. 

Even as he had sinned he had lamented the loss; sick self-pity tainting his insides as he remained silent through Tohdoh and Kirihara’s harsh questioning, refusing to repeat the words of sacrilege his father had uttered even as he was banished in secret from his home for his betrayal of Japan.

But the Vermilion Bird had stayed.

That night the cardinal balance had shifted to the East after the destruction of the Kururugi house, the land turning to favor the guardian of the Sumeragi line instead, but Suzaku’s protector has stayed, blessing still thrumming through his veins even as he crossed the last border out of the land of his birth, carrying the last anchor of his guardian’s power with him.)

The last night before his summoning Suzaku had once more burned incense to He Whose Wings Devour Infernal Flame, praying that his apology reached his guardian though unable to bring himself to ask for forgiveness. He had tried to make peace once more with the anticipated loss.

One that had not come. Suzaku’s boon is intact even now as he settles harshly into his desk chair: blood still laced with sacred fire, feathers still tracing patterns that stay trapped under his skin as he watches.

Lelouch hums and with a flash from the crystal Suzaku can feel the ghostly impression of the demon peering over his shoulder to watch Suzaku’s hands as well.

“Well?” prods Lelouch, reaching for the impression of a tuft of down under the skin of his wrists that flees from the demon’s gloved fingers and Suzaku sighs, feeling sparks rise in his throat.

“A blessing,” he says, pressing a thumb to the pinion dusted across his knuckles that fades at his touch. “A boon to the Kururugi bloodline from the Vermilion Bird.”

“Zhuque of the South,” says Lelouch, speaking his beast’s sacred name with light surprise.

“You know of him?”

Lelouch just pats his hair from behind and slips under his skin once more. _“I like to stay informed, even outside of the demonic sphere.”_ A sensation like fingers drumming inside his skull. _“And what of your firebird’s patronage to your family?”_

Suzaku frowns at the small slight to his guardian. “The Kururugi line was always a single branch. With their loss, the favor shifted to the Sumeragis and He Whose Scales Quell the Rending Storm.”

“And yet Zhuque is still able to grant you his power,” accuses Lelouch.

“Not in totality,” Suzaku counters, “but with the loss of the Kururugi line, the Phoenix of the East will not have the domain to protect Japan.” 

“Well then,” drawls Lelouch, and like a trick of the light Suzaku can suddenly sense the demon draping himself across his lap, heels kicked up as he swings a leg over Suzaku’s as he straddles him, tunic splitting as he does to show the tops of his boots extending past upper things in a flash of light. “If you are to be his last for a while, better make the most of it then, hmm?”

Suzaku just blinks at him before—

Fire.

Fire, flicking flames that choke up his throat and he shakes, blood burning in his veins as he is set ablaze and an inferno rushes through him. Ethereal wings stretch wide, wrapping around him in a feathery embrace, igniting his core as fire fills the air, fills his mind, fills his _soul._

He comes back to himself, gasping against Lelouch’s fingers on his lips, face scant inches from Suzaku’s and with a sickeningly satisfied smile.

“There there,” coos Zero. “Don’t let anyone say I can’t share.”

“How…”

“Hmm,” muses his demon. “Consider it a gift in return. I cannot offer you power directly, but can offer you this—”

“Don’t lie,” says Suzaku with chiding suddenness, cutting Lelouch off who shifts, looking taken aback. “Power of that sort is not yours to grant.” Suzaku runs his tongue against the grooves cut into the top of his mouth. Their shared contract is fully in the shape of sharp angles that pierce through the constraining circle, the mark sealing the fate of their odd balance; Zero forever at Suzaku’s beck and call as long as Suzaku remains restrained to his intent.

Lelouch leans in with his hands on Suzaku’s shoulders, watching him with a look of incredulous fascination. “You are so _strange,”_ his demon marvels at him. “Most would consider this practically a breach of contract: personal power at your disposal, power I can grant you that is divested of me, is the whole point of having a demon on retainer like this.”

“Balance,” Suzaku reminds him. “I’ve always held that my own power serves me well.”

Lelouch just snorts with a total lack of grace. “You far underestimate me and mine if you think that I have nothing to offer.”

“And that is?”

“Well.” Lelouch smiles, a wicked, knowing thing. “That we will have to see, Sir Knight. Get dressed properly,” he says, pointing across the room to a creamy envelope with gold accents that sits innocently on Suzaku’s bedside table. “You may not have noticed but your friend left you a missive.”

“A what?”

“A _missive,_ my dear idiot. From Schneizel, if he’s still using the same seal anyway. Shameless busybody that he is, he probably wants you to report something to him that he really doesn’t have the right to ask after, you being one of the Rounds after all.” Lelouch slides from Suzaku’s lap between one blink and the next, parts of his image fragmenting off in a scattering of light as he crosses the room. “Best to mind your tongue for it though, Kanon was always quite adept at truth spells.”

“Aren’t those illegal without expressed consent given?” Suzaku can’t help but ask as he starts pulling on his uniform.

Lelouch just snorts, arms folding across his chest. “You make it sound like he ever cared for such small matters as ‘legality.’”

With a last tug at his cape, Suzaku breaks the seal and unfolds the paper, still frowning slightly at Lelouch. “You speak as if you know Prince Schneizel well, Lelouch vi _Britannia.”_

And Zero smiles. “That doesn’t matter for now, all that does is that you will not be speaking my name to any other within the kingdom.”

“Oh?”

 _“Oh_ yes,” simpers Lelouch, fingers reaching out to trace around Suzaku’s throat in warning and Suzaku can practically feel the chains coiling around him as Lelouch’s grin goes deathly sharp. “You wouldn’t dare work against my will for something this trivial. After all—” Lelouch shatters, sinking under Suzaku’s skin to coo directly into his brain. _“You promised.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was a bit tied up on this chap so lmk what you think if u get the chance! invest in the fandom stonk market LOL

**Author's Note:**

> [visit me on twitt!](https://twitter.com/stovinar) :3c


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